Chapter 2 - The Sister No One Invited
Elena called the unknown number.
No one answered.
She sent a message asking who was contacting her, although she already suspected the truth.
The reply came five minutes later.
Meet me at Ashbourne Tower. Come alone.
At noon, Elena entered the condo she had not visited for nearly four months.
Dust covered the dining table. The rooms smelled faintly of cedar from the old wardrobes her aunt had refused to replace. Sunlight poured through tall windows and stretched across the wooden floor.
Nothing appeared disturbed.
Still, Elena checked every room before opening the balcony doors.
She had spent some of the happiest years of her life there with Aunt Lydia. The condo had been their refuge after Elena’s parents died. Lydia had never married, but she had filled the home with friends, music and the smell of bread baking in the kitchen.
Adrian disliked it because the building had no private driveway, no ballroom and no portrait of a Mercer ancestor hanging in the lobby.
Elena loved it because no Mercer had chosen it for her.
At twelve thirty, someone knocked.
Maya stood outside in a black jacket and jeans. Her dark hair had been cut shorter since Elena last saw her.
“You came,” Maya said.
“You used your name on the message.”
“I needed you to believe me.”
Elena let her inside.
Maya walked directly to the window and looked down at the street before closing the curtains.
“Does Adrian know you are here?”
“No.”
“Are you sure?”
“He is at his office.”
“That was not my question.”
Elena studied her.
“Why is your name on the transfer agreement?”
“Because Adrian knew you might ask whether I had witnessed it.”
“He said you were unreliable.”
“He says that about everyone he cannot control.”
Maya pulled out her phone and showed Elena three missed calls from Adrian.
“He has been looking for me since this morning.”
“What does the condo have to do with you?”
“Nothing. It has everything to do with him.”
Maya moved around the room as though she had been there before. She stopped beside the bookshelf and stared at a framed photograph of Elena and Lydia.
“When was this taken?”
“About ten years ago.”
“Your aunt knew the Mercers?”
“Not closely.”
Maya turned.
“She knew Claire.”
The name meant nothing to Elena.
“Who is Claire?”
Maya stared at her for several seconds.
“Did Adrian tell you he was engaged before he met you?”
“He said he had one serious relationship.”
“He married her.”
Elena almost laughed because the claim was too large and too sudden to accept.
“No. Adrian has never been married.”
“He has never been legally married under the name Adrian Mercer.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means his full name was Adrian Vale Mercer until eight years ago. He married Claire Bennett using Vale as his surname. Six months later, she disappeared.”
Elena felt a chill move through the room.
“Disappeared?”
“The family announced that she had died in a car accident overseas.”
“Did she?”
“No one saw her body.”
Maya took a photograph from her pocket.
It showed a younger Adrian standing beside a dark-haired woman at a courthouse. Celeste was behind them, smiling.
On the back was a date and a handwritten note.
Tell Maya the condo is the key.
Elena recognized the handwriting.
It belonged to Aunt Lydia.
Maya placed the photograph on the table.
“Claire sent this to me three days before she vanished.”
Elena stared at Lydia’s words.
“Why would my aunt write on Claire’s wedding photograph?”
“I don’t know.”
“Why did you wait eight years to tell anyone?”
“I tried to tell people. Adrian said I was sick. Celeste placed me in a private clinic for five months. When I got out, every document connected to Claire had vanished.”
Elena looked toward the security camera mounted near the ceiling.
The building had installed cameras inside several units after a series of break-ins. Elena had agreed to one in the entry hall but usually kept it disabled.
Today, a tiny green light blinked beneath the lens.
Maya saw it too.
“Did you turn that on?”
“No.”
They heard a key enter the front door.
Maya grabbed the photograph.
Elena stepped into the hall.
The lock turned slowly.
Adrian entered the condo carrying the blue folder.
He looked at Elena, then at Maya standing behind her.
May you like
His expression did not change.
But he locked the door before speaking.
